Dunwell seeks protections for non-affirming parents in foster care and adoptions

Editor’s note: The following is a part of a series of stories covering the priorities of lawmakers who represent Jasper County communities. The issues covered do not represent all of what legislators want to accomplish but merely a small handful of what they consider top priorities in the coming year.

State Rep. Jon Dunwell wants to see protections for parents who reject gender ideology in the foster care system or adoption system or even in child custody cases. The Republican representative of Iowa House District 38 is making this issue one of many priorities this upcoming legislative session.

“Currently, there are discriminatory practices that can pop up in those three areas, so I anticipate a bill coming forward this year in terms of that,” he said.

In a phone interview with Newton News, Dunwell said the bill could safeguard parents who believe gender is determined at birth. He said courts in other states have “increasingly ruled against non-affirming parents” in custody disputes, instead favoring parents who support their child’s preferred gender identity.

Likewise, he claimed in some child protective cases social workers have removed children from the custody of non-affirming, or unaffirming, parents and claim it constitutes child abuse. Dunwell also said some non-affirming parents become ineligible for adoptions or being a foster parent.

“We want to remove those discriminatory practices in the system,” Dunwell said.

Dunwell acknowledged the Department of Health and Human Services tries to align kids and parents together. But what he wants to do away with is the practice of purposefully eliminating someone from being a foster parent or from adopting kids because of their beliefs, or giving preferential treatment to affirming parents.

“There are cases — particularly when you start working with foster care or adoption — of parents being disqualified,” Dunwell said. “We want to make sure they’re not disqualified from participating because they happen to hold a viewpoint on biological sex.”

BEING MINDFUL OF HOME AFFORDABILITY BARRIERS

Dunwell already knows what the top issue will be during this next legislative session: property taxes. In addition to addressing the concerns Iowans have with that very complicated subject, Dunwell wants to take a hard look at home affordability.

Specifically, he wants to look through legislation to make sure lawmakers are not putting undue burdens that increase costs. He pointed to regulations inflating the costs of building homes that inevitably create barriers for potential homeowners. Dunwell wants to make sure laws are vetted for these issues.

“I’m looking at legislation that comes across our desks to make sure we’re not increasing the obligations on homeowners in terms of the costs that are coming out of their pocket,” Dunwell said. “Because we’re reaching a place in which homeownership is becoming more difficult for the average citizen.”

Imposing requirements on new or existing homes inevitably costs the homeowner, Dunwell added.

“Really, it’s (about addressing) overregulation,” Dunwell said. “Not saying we shouldn’t have any regulation, but it’s being more sensitive and saying, ‘I want to make sure we’re not overregulating and driving up the cost that are going to cause people not to be able to afford their homes.’”

A lot of building codes, he added, come from the federal government. The state oftentimes adopts the federal standard. Dunwell wants lawmakers to have a more heightened awareness when looking at applicable bills and not automatically letting the federal standards through if it increases costs.

“Is this absolutely necessary? Some of those things are absolutely necessary,” he said. “So it’s not a matter of getting rid of all regulation; it’s being more conscious of it … We looked at a bill last year for (radon). Iowa has an extremely high amount of it. Passing that on to a new home, we know what the cost is.”

But requiring every existing old home or rental unit to address radon can create problems and generate more costs on homeowners or tenants. Dunwell acknowledged Iowa has a cancer problem, but there is a cost in passing regulations in these types of areas.

“There is a cost to all of that and we end up paying for that as consumers,” Dunwell said. “So we’re making sure when we pass that we’re actually weighing that out in our mind that this is the best solution and that the only way to do this is by increasing regulation, which will increase costs.”

Dunwell anticipates home affordability will be a major issue in the coming years.

“We have large, institutional buyers buying up hundreds of homes in the Midwest and then renting them back out because people can’t afford them,” Dunwell said.

PROTECTIONS AGAINST BLACK MARKET ABORTION DRUGS

Dunwell has already begun advocating for protections against black market abortion drugs. In a social media post on Dec. 9, 2026, Dunwell claimed black market abortion pills are flooding Iowa; they are being sold online with no doctor and no questions asked. As a result, women end up hospitalized.

“We need to address this by creating a civil cause of action for women injured by abortion drugs, strengthen informed consent requirements allowing women there are processes to reverse that in a certain period of time and make sure we’re mandating reporting (because) right now it’s the wild wild west,” Dunwell said.

In the same vein, Dunwell is also working on a medical right of conscience bill that gives healthcare providers protections from being forced to participate in procedures — like abortions — if it violates their beliefs. Dunwell noted the bill is about specific procedures and “not about identifiable groups.”